One of the easiest – and, probably, most fun – ways to get to know the culture of an area is by sampling its cuisine. Is the food locally sourced? Is it mostly sweet or savory?

Since Sept. 6, 2014, Columbus Food Adventures’ Grandview Avenue Walking Food Tour has been making this process much easier on central Ohioans. Each weekend, for $55, food lovers can join Columbus Food Adventures in testing out about seven different Grandview Avenue restaurants.

Bethia Woolf, co-owner of Columbus Food Adventures, says a motivating factor in bringing the tour to Grandview Heights was to build a connection between guests and the Grandview community.

“We thought there were a lot of great restaurants in Columbus, there were a lot of great stories in the food scene – and ones that people weren’t aware of, and how much diversity and immigrant restaurants (exist),” says Woolf. “We wanted to share that with people and give people an easy way to explore those things with somebody to guide them.”

Each week, the guided tour provides guests the opportunity to hear from local chefs and restaurant owners about the history, inspiration and goals of each restaurant. Woolf says the tour typically sells out each weekend at about 15 guests per tour, and attributes much of its success to the increasing focus on food.

“A lot of people enjoy watching food TV. They enjoy watching shows like Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and they like watching Anthony Bourdain,” Woolf says. “Coming on a food tour is sort of a way to do a similar thing in real life on your doorstep.”

However, the tour isn’t just beneficial to tour guests. For Peter Danis, owner of Figlio and Vino Vino, the marketing and exposure is a positive, yet the very last driving factor behind being a part of the tour.

“In my mind, what (Columbus Food Adventures) was promoting, in essence, was the Grandview community as well as, in a greater sense, the city of Columbus as well as the restaurant industry,” says Danis. “Any member of the community has a moral obligation that you need to do your part to make that community stronger and more interesting. It’s good marketing for us, but honestly, that pales in comparison to the other reasons.”

Danis says he typically speaks during about half the tour stops at Vino Vino and Figlio; not because he has the time for it, but because he loves it.

“The tours give you an ability to meet on a more intimate basis than you would meet your guests on a normal basis in the dining room,” he says. “You can have a longer conversation with them, a more in-depth conversation with them. … They walk away with a much stronger connection to this restaurant than they ever had before.”

Any member of the community has a moral obligation that you need to do your part to make that community stronger and more interesting. It’s good marketing for us, but honestly, that pales in comparison to the other reasons.

Woolf says the tour map isn’t published beforehand because it creates an element of surprise for the guests, but guests should expect to stop at Figlio and Vino Vino, the Oilerie, and Stauf’s Coffee Roasters, among others. Woolf says the major benefit of the tour is for guests to form a real relationship with Grandview’s restaurants.

“Because people get to learn a bit more about the business, they hopefully make more of a connection with the business because they’re learning a little bit more about the story,” says Woolf. “You hear from the chefs and owners and you get to see behind the scenes. You get to learn about the businesses in ways you wouldn’t get to know about yourself.”

The Grandview Avenue Walking Food Tour is about creating repeat customers and drawing in guests, but it’s also about something much bigger: strengthening the culture of the community.

“We tell (tour guests) why. Why do we do this after 27 years? … Why is it that people do what they do?” says Danis. “To me, that gets to the essence of what’s important in somebody’s life. Once they get that, they understand. Everything else falls into place, and they understand more about our restaurant.”

Amanda DePerro is an editor. Feedback welcome at adeperro@cityscenemediagroup.com.